278 FIGHTS AND FROLICS. [chap. ix. 



I should tliiuk the legs were the best part to fire at 

 in these cases, because if the bullet strikes the bone 

 it is sure to break it, and an elephant on three legs 

 is like a waggon on three wheels, quite brought to a 

 stand-stUl; and, again, if the bone be missed, the 

 wound, if any, is only a flesh 'wound, and does not kill 

 the animal. Our shots produced no effect, except 

 some very angry trumpeting from the elephants, who 

 first faced us and then decamped. The second time 

 we let them alone, and a young bull fell into one of 

 the wells, which we shot. I think I would have given 

 anything for horses at 'Tounobis. I should have 

 enjoyed myself amazingly if I had had them. 



There were no lions whatever there ; they and 

 rhinoceroses do not hit it off together, and are 

 seldom found in numbers at the same place. A 

 rhinoceros is a sulky morose brute, and it is very 

 ridiculous to watch a sedate herd of gnus bullied by 

 one of them. He runs among them and pokes about 

 with his horn, while they scamper and scurry away 

 from him. in great alarm. He surely must often kill 

 them. 



For my OAvn taste, I should like to spend nights 

 perched up in some tree with a powerful night glass 

 watching these night frolics and attacks. I really do 

 not much care about shooting the animals, though it 

 makes a consummation to the night work, as the death 

 of the fox does to a fox hunt, but it is the least 

 pleasurable part of the whole. Great fun seems to 

 go on among the different animals ; jackals are always 

 seen and are always amusing; their impudence is 



